Three stories I wrote on 9-11 for The Bristol Press

Just wandered back into the archives to find out what I'd actually written that day, since my memories of 9-11 don't include typing up anything for the Press....

All across town Tuesday, people watched television and worried about friends and family in New York City and Washington.

“It feels like war on America,” said Robley Newton, the city’s emergency planning coordinator. “It’s a dark, dark day.”

School board member Barbara Doyle had some anxious hours as she worried about her daughter, Eileen Doyle, who works about 10 blocks from the World Trade Center.

She said that when she finally spoke with her daughter, who’s the director of financial aid for a law school, she was “very much relieved after two hours of agony.”

Eileen Doyle told her mother she could hear the noise and explosions.

“She is extremely shaken up,” Barbara Doyle said.

There were scores of Bristol residents in New York at the time, but most were far from the sickening scene at the World Trade Center towers – including Patricia Ward, the wife of Councilman Art Ward, who was planning a day of sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Ward said she never got close to her destination because of the terrorist attack.

Newton said one of his co-workers had family who worked in the famous twin towers. He couldn’t get through on the phone to learn their fate, Newton said, and “just paced all morning.”

Mayor Frank Nicastro said he called local emergency personnel, including key police and fire representatives, to meet Tuesday afternoon to review procedures, check phone systems and more.

“We jumped on this right away to maintain safety and security in the city,” the mayor said, to make sure “our children are safe, our citizens are safe and our businesses are safe.”

“We have the capabilities to meet everything that comes our way,” said Newton, “but there’s concern from our offices.” He said that in a crisis now it isn’t clear the federal government would be able to help quickly.

Nicastro said he “spoke with ESPN early this morning to make sure they were handling security on their end.”

He said, too, that police officers were issued information Tuesday to keep an eye out for particular activities and to pay particular attention to possible terrorist targets, public and private. He said he did not want to identify any of them.

“Bristol Hospital is on alert,” Newton said.

Ward, a former marine, said he’s ready to go help get the people who committed the assault.

“Kick their ass,” Ward said.

Collin Seguin, a junior at Boston University who graduated two years ago from Bristol Central High School, said he knew three friends who worked in the area of the World Trade Center.

“It was scary wondering if they were OK,” Seguin said, “and then it was even scarier when I realized that there had been a terrorist in Boston, just a few miles away from where I am.”

One of the hijacked planes had been flying from Boston to Los Angeles.

“My stomach gets sick just thinking about it,” Seguin said.

“To know I could have lost friends that I care about, and to know that there was some sicko in this city, and nothing was done about it just really, really scares me,” Seguin said.

One Bristol mother, Cindy Sirianni, breathed a sigh of relief when she heard from her daughter in New York after the explosions.

Her daughter, Francine Keynejad, was slated to move into the World Trade Center with her office next week, she said.

Many of her co-workers were already there, Sirianni said, and tracking them down occupied the day. One man escaped the disaster because he got caught up in traffic.

“He was cussing at the traffic and little did he know it was saving his life,” Sirianni said.

One of her daughter’s friends was on the 45^th floor of one tower. When the plane hit, the woman felt the rumble and saw papers fly.

She and co-workers dashed out and, Keynejad told her mother, “I think she just ran until she got home.”

Sirianni said her son-in-law, Barry Keynejad, an engineer with the Long Island Railroad, spent the day at Penn Station helping get people home.

Nicastro called on local residents to give blood to help the many injured in the attacks on the Pentagon and the 110-story landmarks near the tip of Manhattan.

“Today, our country suffered a national tragedy that wasn’t brought on by hurricane, flood or tornado but by the cowardly acts of individuals who are unknown to us,” Nicastro said.

“We will all, regardless of party affiliation, rally together to see to it that justice is done,” said Nicastro, a U.S. Navy veteran who served for decades in the Connecticut National Guard.

Former Mayor Bill Stortz, a Republican, called the attack “a cowardly act, one where many, many innocent people were involved.”

“I would hope that the United States, and the rest of the free world would respond in a strong and forceful manner so as to show that we will not tolerate this type of unwarranted killing and maiming of innocent people,” Stortz said.

“I personally support the president in any forceful and meaningful retaliation,” Stortz said.

Sirianni said the disaster is almost too much to believe.

She recalled the wonder the twin towers once created.

“What a view it was” up there, she said.

***

Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Barbara Franklin said Tuesday the terrorist attack on Washington and New York “makes us feel sad, then vulnerable, then angry.”

“There will be monumental repercussions, here and around the world,” the Bristol resident said. “This was a watershed event.”

From her office in nation’s capital, she said she “cannot fathom this tragedy, the lives lost, in the buildings, the airlines, on the ground” and that the attack has the “earmarks of a very carefully planned and executed terrorist attack.”

Franklin, who served in the administration of the first President Bush, said that the “numbers of things that had to be done in tandem by the terrorists in order for all this to come off boggles the imagination.”

“The fallout will be incredible,” Franklin said. “What will we do in response? And, how do we protect ourselves from such acts?”

“What will be the reaction around the world?” she wondered, and questioned whether the attack will “trigger a more concerted effort to attack terrorism.”

Franklin, an international business consultant, said that the days’ events were “just devastating.”

She said that just last weekend she was in the Battery area at the tip of Manhattan and “walked through the lower part of one of the World Trade Center buildings,” both of which collapsed after two hijacked airplanes dived into them Tuesday morning.

Shortly after, another hijacked plane plummeted into the south side of the Pentagon, which withstood the damage better.

Franklin said that the area of Washington where she lives and works – near the Watergate complex, not far from the State Department and Kennedy Center – seemed quiet in the aftermath of the attacks.

She said she had planned to go to the Capitol Hill area for lunch Tuesday but she stayed put.

“I can hear sirens,” she said Tuesday morning, “and there is a lot of traffic, moving at a crawl, on Virginia Avenue, which leads to the Rock Creek Parkway going out of the city.”

By mid-day, Franklin said, the city was “closed for security reasons” and people were walking with their briefcases, driving and more as they tried to get out of Washington.

She said there was “gridlock everywhere in the District and on the roads all around it” with “things just closing down.”

Franklin said that many commentators who are speculating about the effect of the disaster on American consumer spending and the economy are off the mark.

“Contrary to some of those people,” Franklin said, “I don't think this will turn out to be detrimental.”

“We could have just the opposite effect -- with people showing strength, determination, and a bit of anger,” Franklin said.

“The American people are very resilient and that spirit that will to show itself,” she said.

“We'll not let terrorists disrupt us, our economy and our government,” Franklin said. “I think there will be a strong sense of unity.”

“Then comes the hard part for our government -- figuring out how to better protect the U.S. and its citizens from such things in the future and finding out who did this and bringing them to justice,” Franklin said.

“We should also see a worldwide effort to eradicate terrorism, at least I hope so.”

***

The coordinated attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon Tuesday is “a very large act of war” that calls for “a very significant response,” said U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson.

The New Britain Republican called it “profoundly shattering that we could be so vulnerable” and that thousands of Americans could die “on our soil” at the hands of a hidden enemy.

“This carries as serious a connotation as Pearl Harbor,” Johnson said. “There is no question that we are going to have to respond forcefully and unequivocally.”

Johnson, whose northwestern Connecticut district includes Bristol, said the day’s events were “really a tragedy of staggering proportions.”

“It’s more than just a terrorist act,” the veteran congresswoman said from her home in Washington. “It’s truly awesome and terrifying.”

Johnson said the attack requires an international response to stamp out terrorism.

She said that if terrorism “becomes how we discuss our differences” among nations “it will be how we destroy our world.”

Leaders across the globe, particularly in the Arab world, need to “grasp that terrorism as an instrument becomes a power so great that it alone can ignite an international conflagration” that could consume the civilized world, Johnson said.

She said Arab leaders must sign on to the battle to wipe out terrorism.

If the Arab world continues to offer public and “silent support” for terrorists they are “going to have the capability to ignite World War III.”

Johnson said the nation has to gather information about what happened but the early indication points to terrorist organizations based in the Middle East.

Johnson, one of the most senior members of Congress, said that with Arab help, the United States can respond “in a targeted and responsive way that hopefully will end the development of this business of terrorism and the evolution of a non-territorial state that acts the same way as a nation state.”

Johnson said that she learned about the World Trade Center attack when she spotted a television report in someone else’s office. Later, back in her own office, she and her staff watched in horror as events unfolded.

After another plane smashed into the Pentagon, orders came to evacuate Capitol Hill offices.

“I was anxious for them to get off the Hill,” she said, so the hustled home.

Johnson said her staff carpooled home. She lives nearby.

Johnson said she is anxious to get back to work “as soon as the Capitol is safe.”

“We cannot allow terrorists to undermine either our spirit or our enormous capacity to work to defend ourselves and govern ourselves,” she said.

Johnson said it is “important that we pick ourselves up” and move quickly to lend a hand to those who are injured and the families of those killed. The country also has to reexamine its policies.

She said there are “a lot of things we have to learn” from this “multiple coordinated attack” for “our own self-defense.”

Johnson said the country has done a lot in recent years to get ready to face terrorism at home, but there is more to do.

“We frankly never conceived of this kind of diversion of domestic aircraft,” the congresswoman said.

“We as a nation and our people have to move forward,” she said, demonstrating to the world that America offers a model for resolving differences peacefully. That’s a key reason that “we are a free, strong people,” she said.

“We mustn’t let this break our stride,” Johnson said.

It's funny, but understandable, that what I remember are the images on television with my parents, talking to my wife who was out in Iowa, speaking with my kids, talking on the phone with U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Barbara Franklin and trying to coral student journalists across the globe to weigh in on the issue. How I got anything done for the Press I have no idea.

Copyright 2013 All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Gingrich socked with 'most severe penalty' as Speaker by ethics panel

With former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rocketing to the top of the polls in the Republican presidential race, it may be a good time to look back on a story that consumed the area's GOP congresswoman for a couple of years during his tenure as a congressional leader.

Here is a story that ran in The Bristol Press and New Britain Herald when U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson, a New Britain Republican, got the House to sanction and fine Gingrich over an ethics violation:

January 21, 1997

By STEVE COLLINS

After a plea from Rep. Nancy Johnson to put aside ''the crippling partisanship and animosity that has surrounded us,'' the House Tuesday overwhelmingly backed her ethics committee's reprimand and $300,000 fine for Speaker Newt Gingrich.

''It is the most severe penalty ever against a sitting speaker,'' said Johnson. ''It is also appropriate. No one is above the rules of the House of Representatives.''

Her colleagues voted 395-28 to sanction Gingrich for his admitted ethical lapses. But the move won't force the speaker to give up his post.

The bipartisan decision Tuesday capped a two-year battle over Gingrich's conduct that often dissolved into political feuding of startling dimensions - including bare-knuckled battles in Johnson's northwestern Connecticut district.

Johnson, a New Britain Republican, called on lawmakers ''to learn and grow from this solemn occasion'' and ''end the partisan rancor that has come to surround this case and this House.''

Though other charges against Gingrich remain on the ethics committee's agenda, Johnson will no longer have to deal with them. She finished up her service on the panel Tuesday.

Johnson said her panel ''found that Rep. Gingrich brought discredit to the House by failing to get appropriate legal advice to ensure that his actions would be in compliance with tax law and to oversee the development of his letters to the committee to insure they were accurate in every respect.''

''Each member of Congress, especially those in positions of leadership, shoulders the responsibility of avoiding even the appearance of impropriety,'' she said. ''Rep. Gingrich failed to exercise the discipline and caution of his office and so is subject to penalty today.''

Johnson pointed out that the ethics panel has never before reprimanded a member for making false statement to it unless it found an intent to mislead. In Gingrich's case, it stopped just short of saying he knowingly lied.

Monetary sanctions have never before been slapped on a member who was not personally enriched by his actions, said Johnson, adding that no findings indicated Gingrich made any money from his political dealings.

Johnson said her committee never lost sight of the need for ''full and complete disclosure of every fact in this case and a bipartisan recommendation. We accomplished both, even though it would have been easy for Republicans or Democrats to walk away from the process at many stages. We didn't because we believe in this institution and in the ethics process.''

The ethics committee ''was forced to conduct its work against a harsh backdrop of political warfare,'' said Johnson.

''It's the first time ever that members of the ethics committee have been the target of coordinated partisan assaults in their districts. Coordinated political pressure on members of the ethics committee by other members is not only destructive of the ethics oversight process but it is beneath the dignity of this great institution and those who serve here,'' Johnson said.

Johnson has come under withering criticism from two potential opponents in 1998 for her handling of the case. They say she delayed proceedings and sought to help Gingrich survive the probe.

But Johnson has frequently praised her committee's work and taken credit for pushing the case to completion despite the atmospherics surrounding it.

Johnson called on legislators before Tuesday's vote to reject ''the partisanship and animosity that has so deeply permeated the work of the House'' and back the ethics recommendation.

''We cannot afford the harsh partisanship that has become too much a part of our lives,'' Johnson said.

Johnson, elected in 1982, represents the sixth district, which includes Bristol, New Britain, Torrington, the Litchfield hills and the Farmington River valley.

Here's an earlier story that lays it out a little more:

January 17, 1997

By STEVE COLLINS

The surprisingly cohesive House Ethics Committee displayed on national television Friday agreed on a deal with Speaker Newt Gingrich that will almost certainly lead to his reprimand and a $300,000 penalty.

The sanction, considered harsh by lawmakers, will allow Gingrich to remain as the top congressional leader for another term if the rest of the House endorses it Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson, the New Britain Republican who heads the ethics panel, said there had been ``some serious misunderstandings'' before the hearing but her eight-member panel came together for its finale.

``The speaker of the House must be held to the highest ethical standards,'' said a stern-looking Johnson. ``No one is above the rules of the House.''

The ethics panel voted 7-1 to recommend the reprimand and fine to their colleagues. The only dissenter, Republican Lamar Smith of Texas, was a last-minute addition to the committee who likened the speaker's conduct to running a yellow light.

Gingrich admitted he created tax-exempt foundations to fund programs aimed at advancing his political agenda. He also confessed to providing ``inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable'' information about his activities to the ethics committee.

Johnson said she found it ``deeply disturbing'' that Gingrich's extensive letters to her committee contained ``glaring, even stark, contradictions of fact.''

The speaker's lawyer, Randy Evans, blamed Gingrich's busy schedule and his other attorneys for the errors. But Johnson said she is stunned the speaker exercised ``such a casual degree of oversight.''

Special counsel James Cole said the bipartisan, four-member investigatory subcommittee believed the proper penalty for Gingrich's conduct fell somewhere between a reprimand and censure. A censure would force the speaker from his powerful perch.

It opted to support a reprimand with the additional requirement of $300,000 reimbursement from Gingrich to cover a portion of the tab for the costly ethics investigation. Cole said misinformation from the speaker delayed the probe and added to its expense.

Cole said Gingrich ``should make sure he pays it in an ethical manner. It is up to him to do it in the right way.'' He said if the speaker fails to raise the cash properly ``there's a chance of being back here.''

Johnson called the penalty ``tough and unprecedented compared with past cases.''

``We have come up with a fair result and a fair resolution of the matter,'' said Cole. He said if proof exists that Gingrich lied, he would urge censure or more.

Summarizing the panel's findings, Cole said, ``Over a number of years and in a number of situations, Mr. Gingrich showed a disregard and lack of respect for the standards of conduct that applied to his activities.''

Cole said that while ``bells and whistles'' of warning were going off, ``Mr. Gingrich ran a very lot of yellow lights, some orange lights.''

Rep. Steve Schiff, a New Mexico Republican, said the subcommittee succeeded in ignoring ``the political currents swimming around us.'' He said the ``reprimand plus'' penalty is appropriate.

But Schiff added that Gingrich's friends will think the panel's recommendation unduly harsh and the speaker's foes won't be satisfied unless the Georgia Republican ``is drawn and quartered after being boiled in oil.''

The six-hour hearing featured lengthy statements by Cole and lawyers for Gingrich presenting their respective takes on the case, then short comments by members of the panel, then a period of questions and answers. After retreating behind closed doors briefly, the panel voted on sanctions late Friday.

It represents the culmination of a case filed in Sept. 1994 and in the hands of a special counsel for more than a year. In the past month, the ethics committee almost splintered, with its members holding competing press conferences and dueling almost daily about the proper procedures to follow.

Johnson, who had come under harsh criticism, diplomatically called it ``a difficult environment.''

``We've had our storms,'' said Rep. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the panel since a Washington congressman resigned this week amidst allegations he turned over an illegally obtained tape recording of a cellular phone conversation to two newspapers.

Rep. Porter Goss, the Florida Republican who led the investigatory subcommittee, praised Johnson for her ``extraordinary perseverance, patient and commitment'' in bringing the ethics panel through its troubles.

Schiff complimented Johnson simply ``for getting us here.''

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, criticized Johnson and the GOP for preventing a full hearing where Cole could present witnesses and explain the case in detail. But she also thanked Johnson for the cooperative spirit on display Friday.

Johnson appeared relieved to have the hearing behind her. Her service on the ethics panel ends Tuesday.

Another story, focused on Johnson:

January 10, 1997

By STEVE COLLINS

In her two decades of political life, U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson has never attracted the kind of attention she's getting these days.

And she surely wishes it wasn't so.

Two potential rivals for the New Britain Republican's congressional seat are already on the attack - and Democrats across the country have Johnson in their crosshairs.

Plainville professor Charlotte Koskoff, who nearly upset Johnson at the polls last year, called her leadership of the badly split House Ethics Committee ``very, very sad.''

``She's really blown it,'' said Bristol businessman Jim Griffin, who lost to Johnson in 1988 but hopes for a rematch in 1998.

Johnson has guided the ethics panel the past two years as it maneuvered through a political minefield to issue rulings on a series of complaints about House Speaker Newt Gingrich's conduct.

Most were settled unanimously behind closed doors after much wrangling, which Johnson insists is evidence of her strong, fair  leadership.

But one last complaint remains - and history may hinge on it.

The pace of the assault against Gingrich has quickened as the stakes have risen. Now the partisan rancor that has long infected the House has publicly riven Johnson's 10-member committee as well.

Paul Gigot, a conservative commentator for The Wall Street Journal, called it ``a public blood feud.''

``What you have is total, global, nuclear war. It's impossible to overestimate the poisonous air in the Ethics Committee,'' Gigot said.

At least three Democrats among the five serving on Johnson's ethics panel have sharply criticized her in recent days.

Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington said Johnson's willingness to buckle to Gingrich's needs indicate she is ``throwing herself on a hand grenade for the speaker.''

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California charged Johnson with abusing her power when she canceled a week-long hearing into the case after Democrats griped about details.

Rep. Ben Cardin of Maryland joined Pelosi in telling Johnson he was ``particularly troubled'' by her abrupt decision to cancel the hearings.

Whatever the merits of the Democrats' arguments, Johnson has certainly failed to keep her committee from falling apart. Its five Democrats and five GOP members have been dueling in public for days now.

Journalist John Barry, who wrote the definitive book on the downfall of former Democratic Speaker Jim Wright, once described the ethics panel as possessing ``vast power.''

It serves, he said, as ``investigator, grand jury, prosecutor, jury, judge and appeals court.''

With the kind of clout, Johnson's committee holds Gingrich's political fate in its grasp.

Soon, probably next Sunday, the panel will recommend a penalty  for the misconduct the speaker admits he engaged in. There may a public hearing Friday and perhaps Saturday.

It is likely the committee will urge a reprimand that would let Gingrich retain his position. But it can urge censure or ouster and thereby toss Gingrich from the nation's third highest political office.

Griffin said the ethics hearing on Gingrich this week and the subsequent decision on sanctions ``may be Nancy's last chance to salvage respectability for her chairmanship, but I don't think she's up to the task.''

He said he expects ``a grotesque finale'' to a case Johnson has mishandled from the start.

``There will be no redemption for her,'' said Griffin, ``because she's made up her mind. You have to be an idiot or Nancy Johnson to believe what Newt is saying.''

Koskoff said Johnson has been on ``the wrong side'' of the Gingrich case all along and won't switch now.

She said her former foe's refusal to extend the ethics committee's deadline despite a request from most of its members and the special counsel it hired is ``frankly unfathomable. It's all mind-boggling.''

Johnson has perhaps shown too much haste.

But she only agreed to stay on the panel into the new year, when her term expired, because Democrats agreed the matter would be over by Jan. 21. At that point, Johnson could finally quit.

Any delay and the case could go on forever, as Republican ethics panel member David Hobson of Ohio said.

What happens next in the tangled matter is, of course, impossible to predict.

Johnson could yet shock everyone with her ruling on Gingrich. Or perhaps she can break through the political fog and convince the mainstream of America that a chastened Gingrich deserves no more than a reprimand.

But one thing is sure: that Johnson will be mighty happy to leave the ethics committee behind.

She said there are plenty of more pressing issues her constituents would like to have her working on, from tax policy to health care. The Gingrich case is, for her, just a terrible distraction.

Johnson has represented northwestern Connecticut's sixth district since 1982. The district includes Bristol, New Britain, Torrington, the Litchfield hills and the Farmington River valley.

Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Nancy Johnson backs Simmons for Senate

Former U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson, the New Britain Republican who represented Bristol for years, today endorsed the U.S. Senate bid of another former congressman, Rob Simmons.
Apparently Linda McMahon couldn't wrestle Johnson away from Simmons.
*******
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com